We use cookies to give you the best possible online experience. If you continue, we'll assume you are happy for your web browser to receive all cookies from our website. See our cookie policy for more information on cookies and how to manage them.

Home > Media > News releases > UK: Aviva and Norwich City go global with longest main sponsorship deal in club history

UK: Aviva and Norwich City go global with longest main sponsorship deal in club history

18 Apr 2012

New home kit launched and thousands of fans join “Global Canaries”

An historic new contract between Aviva and Norwich City Football Club has been announced today. The extended contract is for four years starting from July 2012 – taking the total length of time with Aviva as main club sponsor up to eight seasons.

As main club sponsor the insurer will continue to feature on the team’s shirts and sponsor the Community Stand at Carrow Road.

Aviva is the UK’s largest insurer and operates in over 21 countries worldwide. Today Norwich City also goes global with the launch of “Global Canaries”, a new e-newsletter with exclusive content for the thousands of City followers at home and abroad, from the USA to India, Spain to Malaysia.

To complete an eventful day for the Club, City also today unveiled their new Errea home kit for the 2012-2013 campaign. Norwich City director, Stephen Fry, said he was delighted to hear about the new deal with Aviva – and celebrated by taking time off from filming “The Hobbit” in New Zealand to star alongside some Canary players in the Club’s innovative “Pass it on” viral video, promoting the new home kit, which you can see at www.norwichkit.com.

“We’re so thrilled Aviva are with us for another four years. A four years which we hope will see our beloved club consolidate its natural home in the Premier League.

“The new kit fitted me like a ….football shirt. I was so pleased to be able to launch it, even while 12,000 miles away. You’d be amazed how many Norwich fans there are in New Zealand.”

The Norwich City and Aviva brands have been beamed to millions across the world since the team were promoted to the Barclays Premier League. In the last five seasons there has been a 171% increase in global TV coverage of the Premier League1 and each match has gone out to 650 million homes, with games broadcast in 211 different countries giving a global weekly audience of 1.46 billion.2

Anne Filatotchev, marketing director at Aviva, said the deal championed a shared local heritage between the two brands, but also their global reach: “We are a business that trades in a global market and to have a partnership with a Premier League football club, where our brand is seen in millions of homes across the world every week, is a great asset to have. We are proud to be continuing this strong relationship for a further four years.

“But this new contract is also about Aviva’s heritage and support for local UK communities - Norwich is the headquarters of our general insurance business and we have around 6,000 staff working in the city, many of whom are Norwich City fans. As part of our sponsorship we have a programme of sport-related activities locally that will also benefit the community here.”

The simultaneous launch of Global Canaries means that City followers from home and abroad who sign up for free membership will receive exclusive interviews, competitions and prizes via a fortnightly e-newsletter. Since playing in the Barclays Premier League there has been a surge in international interest in the Club. Fans from a total of 146 countries around the world are among the 58,568 supporters who follow the Club on twitter and Facebook.3

City chief executive, David McNally, said: “We’re delighted to have agreed a new four-year deal with Aviva. This latest commitment to the club makes them the longest main club sponsor in our history, which is fantastic backing.

“Securing a partnership with a major global brand such as Aviva fits perfectly with our own objective of continuing to develop our interaction with overseas fans and businesses.

“The launch of Global Canaries today is another important step for us as it’s a perfect way to reach out to our supporters both in Norfolk and around the world. It’s an exciting time for us as a club and it’s great that Aviva will continue to be part of the amazing journey Norwich City has been on these past few years.”

The theme of the viral video is “Pass it on”, featuring Norwich City players, Aviva staff and other guests including Stephen Fry, celebrating the launch of the new home kit.

Commenting on Global Canaries, Stephen Fry added: “You know how when you‘re travelling and you see someone in Canary colours and then you leap up to them only to discover it’s a Brazilian kit? Well, in New Zealand I was amazed by how often it really was Norwich. I do hope as many fans as possible will join in with the 'Pass it on' campaign and enjoy wearing their colours with pride. On the ball City and never mind the danger!”

To view the video and see how supporters can star in it viral themselves visit www.norwichkit.com.

-ends-

If you are a journalist and would like further information, please contact:

1 Global TV coverage of the Premier League (number of hours) over 06/07-10/11 seasons: Source Kantar Sport2 Research conducted by European sports marketing company Sport+Markt in 20113 Fans from a total of 146 countries around the world follow the club on twitter – source www.tweepsmap.com. The top 15 countries are - UK, USA, Indonesia, Australia, Ireland, Spain, India, Nigeria, Canada, Italy, Norway, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia and France.

Since Aviva became main club sponsor in 2008 it has developed a variety of community programmes affiliated to football:

576 Norfolk school pupils have attended "Footy Finance" or "Classroom Champions" programmes which use football and sport to support numeracy and literacy programmes.

Over £50,000 has been raised for local charities through its donation of shirt sponsorship.

The "Ability Counts" programme, which uses football and sport to provide activities for those with physical, learning and social disabilities, has reached 8476 children and adults over the last three years.

Over 300 signed Norwich City shirts and footballs have been distributed for local fundraising.

It has created and run the Aviva Norwich City Fan of the Year competition.

About AvivaAviva provides insurance, savings and investment products to 43 million customers worldwide.

We are the UK’s largest insurer with over 14 million customers and one of Europe’s leading providers of life and general insurance. We combine strong life insurance, general insurance and asset management businesses under one powerful brand. We are committed to serving our customers well in order to build a stronger, sustainable business, which makes a positive contribution to society, and for which our people are proud to work.

We are ranked as one of the UK’s top 10 most valuable brands and Aviva plc are in the top 10% of socially responsible companies globally in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. In 2011 we invested £5.3 million into our communities in the UK, which included 34% of Aviva employees volunteering nearly 33,000 hours for good causes.

Aviva is working in partnership with Railway Children through the Aviva Street to School programme to get children living or working on UK streets back into everyday life. Find out more at www.aviva.co.uk/street-to-school.

The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes company information and a news release archive.